Aircraft and specifically military aircraft are routinely provided with threat detection systems. These threat detection systems may include for instance, RADAR, Global Positioning Systems (“GPS”), or any other appropriate detection system for the application, to detect surrounding threats. These threats may include, for instance, hostile aircraft or weapons whether air or land based. These threat detection systems typically include an interface, such as a visual and/or an audible warning to indicate proximity of a hostile aircraft and/or weapon. A visual interface display may further indicate the relative location of the hostile aircraft and/or weapon to the pilot's aircraft.
However, while an audible interface may provide the pilot with some information relating to the proximity of hostile aircraft and/or weapons, it will not inform the pilot of the hostile aircraft and/or weapon location relative to the pilot's aircraft.
Visual interfaces will provide this information, but because high performance fighter jets travel at such high speeds, it is disadvantageous for the pilot to have to split his attention between looking at, for instance, a visual interface such as a RADAR screen and keeping direct visual track of threats. Another challenge facing the pilot is that there are many instruments that must be consulted and potentially a number of different threats to identify and track visually, both directly in his field of vision and on the displays. As a result, the pilot may overlook a threat in a crowded airspace, which could have disastrous consequences.
In view of the forgoing, what is desired then is a threat detection system interface that will provide an alert to a pilot of an aircraft of the location of any hostile aircraft and/or weapon relative to the pilot's aircraft while not requiring the pilot to visually or audibly identify this information.
It is further desired to provide a threat detection system interface that will provide an alert to a pilot of an aircraft of the distance of any hostile aircraft and/or weapon relative to the pilot's aircraft while not requiring the pilot to visually or audibly identify this information.
It is still further desired to provide a threat detection system interface that will provide an indication to the pilot of both the location and distance relative to the pilot's aircraft of any hostile aircraft and/or weapon while not interfering with the pilot's ability to maintain visual contact of additional hostile aircraft and/or weapons.
It is still further desired to provide a threat detection system interface that will provide an indication to the pilot of the location and distance of multiple hostile aircraft and/or weapon relative to the pilot's aircraft while not requiring the pilot to visually or audibly identify this information.